Friday, 4 June 2010
The Final Entry
Well this is it. I'm officially leaving Bangor today. I'm going to Manchester Piccadilly to stay in a hostel tonight with Mel and early tomorrow morning we are going down to Cardiff to cheer on Wales against South Africa in the rugby match. Then on Sunday morning at 9:55 our flight leaves for Chicago!! I arrive in the States at 12:30 on Sunday. I am so excited to be coming home!!! I am really going to miss this place though. It has been so great here. I have learned so much and have had some awesome experiences. I want to thank you for supporting me and reading this. It's fun to write about my adventures. Goodbye Bangor!!!
Thursday, 3 June 2010
Walking through Waterfalls, Swimming through Icebergs, and Spotting the Whales = Iceland
This was my last and final trip before coming home. Teresa, Ashley, and I were pretty nervous that we wouldn't be able to go when the volcano erupted but as the month went on, only steam appeared to be coming out so we were going to be fine. We bought our train tickets to London Heathrow the day of though just in case something happened. We left in the afternoon on Tuesday to London Euston and took the underground (which lasted about 30-45 minutes) to the airport. It is always a pain to fly out of a London airport because none of them are actually in London. You have to take a train to London Euston and then the tube or another train to the airport. It is not fun. Anyway, we arrived in the evening at Heathrow, checked in, and went through security. We had heard from several people that it takes a very long time to get through security but actually, it didn't take us very long at all leaving and coming back. Once we were through, we ate some dinner there and then headed on over to our gate. We flew on Icelandair (of course) and I got a window seat on the way over. The airplane was incredibly nice! We each had our own screens to watch movies, tv, and listen to music. I watched Avatar on the way over, which took about 2 1/2 hours total. While we were flying, we kept on following the sun so it felt like we weren't going anywhere. We got into Iceland around 11:30 that night and it was still daylight out! We took a taxi to our hotel which was right in the middle of town center. Iceland's money is krono and when you convert it, it is about 168 krono to one pound. So when I took money out, I got 20,000 krono in 1,000 and 5,000 bills. It was really weird. It cost about 12,000 kronos for the taxi ride but we made it. The hotel was extremely nice, we got our own rooms! I had twin bed, a tv, a nice bathroom, and even a balcony from my bathroom! Although the balcony looked into a ceramic shop, it was still nice. We were pretty pooped so we went right to sleep.
The next morning we ate breakfast at the hotel and we realized that all of us had woken up several time
s during the night because of the light that was coming through the curtains. When we all opened up our curtains in the morning, we realized that there was a thicker curtain underneath that we didn't see. Oh well. Here in Iceland, they have about 22 hours of sunlight and in July its about 24 hours. When it gets towards winter they only have about 1 or 2 hours of sunlight. I'm glad we didn't go in the winter but having the sun all the time was really weird. We spent the morning souvenir shopping before going back to the hotel and changing into our swimsuits for . . . . . the Blue Lagoon!!! We were picked up from the company we bought our trip through to take us to the blue lagoon. For those of you who do not know what the blue lagoon is, it is a geothermal seawater spa that people just wade in and is good for the skin. There are steam baths, saunas, and massages. While you wade around, there are containers with silica creme to
smear on your faces to exfoliate your skin. And of course we did that! We actually did it twice. We looked like idiots but so did everyone else so it didn't matter. There were some older bald men who caked the stuff on their heads as well. It was so funny! We were there for about 3 hours or so. Once we were finished, we headed back to the hotel and then out to dinner at the Basil and Lime, an Italian restaurant. We went down to the water after dinner to take pictures at the scenic point. It was pretty chilly there so we headed back to the hotel to get some rest because it was going to be another early morning and a long day.
s during the night because of the light that was coming through the curtains. When we all opened up our curtains in the morning, we realized that there was a thicker curtain underneath that we didn't see. Oh well. Here in Iceland, they have about 22 hours of sunlight and in July its about 24 hours. When it gets towards winter they only have about 1 or 2 hours of sunlight. I'm glad we didn't go in the winter but having the sun all the time was really weird. We spent the morning souvenir shopping before going back to the hotel and changing into our swimsuits for . . . . . the Blue Lagoon!!! We were picked up from the company we bought our trip through to take us to the blue lagoon. For those of you who do not know what the blue lagoon is, it is a geothermal seawater spa that people just wade in and is good for the skin. There are steam baths, saunas, and massages. While you wade around, there are containers with silica creme to
smear on your faces to exfoliate your skin. And of course we did that! We actually did it twice. We looked like idiots but so did everyone else so it didn't matter. There were some older bald men who caked the stuff on their heads as well. It was so funny! We were there for about 3 hours or so. Once we were finished, we headed back to the hotel and then out to dinner at the Basil and Lime, an Italian restaurant. We went down to the water after dinner to take pictures at the scenic point. It was pretty chilly there so we headed back to the hotel to get some rest because it was going to be another early morning and a long day. On Wednesday, we got picked up again and taken to another part in the city to get on another bus for o
ur excursion. This was going to be a 14 hour excursion to the southern part of Ireland and back but it was most definitely worth it. We started off with our first stop at the Skogafoss waterfall. It was so big and cool! Throu
ghout the entire ground was ash from the volcano that had erupted not that long ago. Everytime you stepped, a little poof of ash would appear. My tennis shoes are originally black but after walking around, they had turned gray. The volcano is no longer spiting ash into the air, now it is only steam. And we actually saw the steam! We didn't stay too long at the waterfall because we had a long drive ahead of us. We stopped at the Island Hotel for some lunch in the middle of a lava field! We had traditional Icelandic soup which consists of lamb, carrots, potatoes, and some other things. It wasn't too bad. After lunch we went outside and took some pictures of the pla
ce. The lava rocks were covered in this really weird moss that was springy when you walked on it. It was slightly odd. After the lunch, we took an extremely long ride through lava fields, sand deserts, and rock deserts to our turning around point, the Glacier Lagoon! This is the coolest thing ever! We got in a vehicle that drove on land and in water into the lagoon with icebergs floating every
where! Right outside of the lagoon is the biggest glacier in Iceland! The water was about 5 degrees Celsius with the wind blowing, it was cold! We were there for a while just cruising on the water and our tour guide told us a little more about it and the ice. About 90% of the iceberg is underwater and every so often the ice flips over in the water which gives off a 
blueish color. It was so neat. We got to eat 1,000 year old ice too. Just to let you know, it tasted like regular ice. Once we were done, we went back on land and went into the shop to get some hot chocolate to warm up. Once we had seen our share (but believe me, I could have stayed there longer) we took the long ride back to the capital, Reykjavik (pronounced rake-ee-a-vik). We made a st
op at the town of Vik to have some dinner at a cafe (cheeseburger and chips for 995 kronos) and one more stop at another waterfall before we were done. But the last stop at the waterfall was probably one of my favorite places because we could walk behind it! It was the coolest thing ever! We were very tired that day and got back to our hotel around 10:30 that evening and just walked around the town. We went all the way down to the harbour and took pictures of the place. Our bodies w
ere very confused the amount of sunlight. It was getting to be 1 o'clock in the morning and it was still light out. It was just so weird! But don't worry, I pulled the thicker curtain across the window this time so I could actually sleep. I did have a tv in my room but all of the channels were in Icelandic so that didn't help me too much. Everyone in Iceland speaks Icelandic and for the most part, everyone speaks English. That was very helpful. Believe me, it is difficult to get around a place when you can't speak their language.
ur excursion. This was going to be a 14 hour excursion to the southern part of Ireland and back but it was most definitely worth it. We started off with our first stop at the Skogafoss waterfall. It was so big and cool! Throu
ghout the entire ground was ash from the volcano that had erupted not that long ago. Everytime you stepped, a little poof of ash would appear. My tennis shoes are originally black but after walking around, they had turned gray. The volcano is no longer spiting ash into the air, now it is only steam. And we actually saw the steam! We didn't stay too long at the waterfall because we had a long drive ahead of us. We stopped at the Island Hotel for some lunch in the middle of a lava field! We had traditional Icelandic soup which consists of lamb, carrots, potatoes, and some other things. It wasn't too bad. After lunch we went outside and took some pictures of the pla
ce. The lava rocks were covered in this really weird moss that was springy when you walked on it. It was slightly odd. After the lunch, we took an extremely long ride through lava fields, sand deserts, and rock deserts to our turning around point, the Glacier Lagoon! This is the coolest thing ever! We got in a vehicle that drove on land and in water into the lagoon with icebergs floating every
where! Right outside of the lagoon is the biggest glacier in Iceland! The water was about 5 degrees Celsius with the wind blowing, it was cold! We were there for a while just cruising on the water and our tour guide told us a little more about it and the ice. About 90% of the iceberg is underwater and every so often the ice flips over in the water which gives off a 
blueish color. It was so neat. We got to eat 1,000 year old ice too. Just to let you know, it tasted like regular ice. Once we were done, we went back on land and went into the shop to get some hot chocolate to warm up. Once we had seen our share (but believe me, I could have stayed there longer) we took the long ride back to the capital, Reykjavik (pronounced rake-ee-a-vik). We made a st
op at the town of Vik to have some dinner at a cafe (cheeseburger and chips for 995 kronos) and one more stop at another waterfall before we were done. But the last stop at the waterfall was probably one of my favorite places because we could walk behind it! It was the coolest thing ever! We were very tired that day and got back to our hotel around 10:30 that evening and just walked around the town. We went all the way down to the harbour and took pictures of the place. Our bodies w
ere very confused the amount of sunlight. It was getting to be 1 o'clock in the morning and it was still light out. It was just so weird! But don't worry, I pulled the thicker curtain across the window this time so I could actually sleep. I did have a tv in my room but all of the channels were in Icelandic so that didn't help me too much. Everyone in Iceland speaks Icelandic and for the most part, everyone speaks English. That was very helpful. Believe me, it is difficult to get around a place when you can't speak their language. Friday was our last day in Iceland and what did we do? Whale watching!!! It was another early morning and we checked out of the hotel before we left but they kept our bags for 
us. We got on a boat and our guide suggested that we put on the overalls provided because it was going to get cold. And did we? Of course! They look so silly but oh boy did they keep you warm! They were amazing! We actually looked like we were going to go snowboarding or something but we were just whale wa
tching. We went to an island that had puffins on it but I couldn't get very good pictures of them because there weren't very many. We headed out into the bay and our first sight was a porpoise but not long after that was minke whales! They were popping up everywhere! We were about to be done that morning when one of the crew members had spotted something much bigger than a minke whale. We went on over to it and much to everyone surprise, there were two humpback whales!!! They had not been seen for 2 months and it was actually 2 days before they were going to migrate down south for the summer to give birth to their b
abies! It was awesome! And we were really close too! It was the coolest thing ever. We got an extra half n' hour on the boat because of the humpback whales. Once we landed, we hurried to get some lunch and finish our souvenir shopping and then back to the hotel to grab our stuff and catch the bus to the airport. Our plane left at 4 and we got into London Heathrow around 8. We got through customs just fine and quick too. The lady had just gotten on duty and was in a good mood so that helped. Once we were through, we headed to the underground to take to London Euston. We were going to sleep in the airport that night but decided against it so we booked a room at the hostel Teresa, Mel, and I stayed at when we visited London. In the morning we took an early train back to Bangor. After an awesome trip, it was good to be back.
us. We got on a boat and our guide suggested that we put on the overalls provided because it was going to get cold. And did we? Of course! They look so silly but oh boy did they keep you warm! They were amazing! We actually looked like we were going to go snowboarding or something but we were just whale wa
tching. We went to an island that had puffins on it but I couldn't get very good pictures of them because there weren't very many. We headed out into the bay and our first sight was a porpoise but not long after that was minke whales! They were popping up everywhere! We were about to be done that morning when one of the crew members had spotted something much bigger than a minke whale. We went on over to it and much to everyone surprise, there were two humpback whales!!! They had not been seen for 2 months and it was actually 2 days before they were going to migrate down south for the summer to give birth to their b
abies! It was awesome! And we were really close too! It was the coolest thing ever. We got an extra half n' hour on the boat because of the humpback whales. Once we landed, we hurried to get some lunch and finish our souvenir shopping and then back to the hotel to grab our stuff and catch the bus to the airport. Our plane left at 4 and we got into London Heathrow around 8. We got through customs just fine and quick too. The lady had just gotten on duty and was in a good mood so that helped. Once we were through, we headed to the underground to take to London Euston. We were going to sleep in the airport that night but decided against it so we booked a room at the hostel Teresa, Mel, and I stayed at when we visited London. In the morning we took an early train back to Bangor. After an awesome trip, it was good to be back.
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